﻿Entyposisfrici (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Melolonthinae), a new species from Somaliland

﻿Abstract Entyposisfrici Bezděk & Sehnal, sp. nov., from Somaliland is described and relevant diagnostic characters are illustrated. The new species is compared with the morphologically closely similar Entyposis Kolbe, 1894 species. An updated checklist and an identification key to northeastern African Entyposis species are provided.


Introduction
The genus Entyposis Kolbe, 1894 forms a characteristic group with striking sexual dimorphism within the tribe Schizonychini (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae, Melolonthinae). The pronotum of males is thickened basally into conspicuous bulges and has a deep medial impression that widens anteriorly into a prominent tubercle. Both the basal bulges and the medial impression are only weakly developed in females. The rather similar genus Entypophana Moser, 1913 differs from Entyposis primarily in the shape of the occipital carina, which is simple in Entyposis but elevated medially into a broad edge or simple (occasionally double) horn in Entypophana (Lacroix and Montreuil 2012;Sehnal 2017).
According to a recent revision of Entyposis by Lacroix and Montreuil (2012), there were nine species distributed in eastern Africa. Thenceforth, two more papers have been published. Sehnal (2017) described a new Entyposis from southern Ethiopia, and later he (Sehnal 2019) synonymized Proseconius Kolbe, 1894 with Entyposis and E. cavicollis (Fairmaire, 1887) with P. capito (Gerstaecker, 1873). Thus, 10 Entyposis species are known to be distributed from southern Ethiopia to northern Zimbabwe.
Within the rich material recently collected by Czech entomologists in Somaliland during 2021-2022, we found a pair (male and female) of Entyposis new to science, the description of which is presented below. The presence of this new Somaliland species significantly extends the range of Entyposis in a northeasterly direction towards the Horn of Africa.

Materials and methods
The specimens were examined with a Novex stereomicroscope; measurements were taken with an ocular grid. Length measurements are from the anterior margin of the clypeus to the apex of the elytron. The habitus photographs were taken with a Canon MP-E 65mm/2.8 1-5× macro lens attached to a Canon EOS 90D camera. Partially focused images of each specimen were stacked using the Helicon Focus v. 3.20.2 Pro software.
Specimens in the type series are provided with one red printed label: "Entyposis frici sp. nov., HOLOTYPUS or PARATYPUS [with sex symbol], A. Bezděk and R. Sehnal det. 2023". Verbatim label data are cited for type material examined. Lines within each label are separated by a vertical slash [|]. Information in quotes indicates the original spelling. Authors' remarks and additional comments are placed in brackets [].
The following codes identify the collections housing the material examined (curators in round brackets):
All fieldwork in this study complied with legal Somaliland regulations and sampling was in accordance with local legislation (export permit Ref.
Pronotum transverse, convex, widest at about middle; base broader than anterior margin; with shallow, oval anteromedial depression narrower then head weakly rising toward edge of crest (Figs 17,25). Anterior margin with well visible tubercle at middle; anterior angles weak, broadly rounded. Lateral margins crenulate, with moderately long setae. Posterior margin with distinct border, very shortly interrupted at middle. Crest delimiting anteromedial depression well visible, with wide V-shaped impunctate strip (Fig. 17) and small impunctate area in basal part of depression. Punctation of remaining surface coarse, somewhat irregular, punctures separated by 1-2× their diameters. Each puncture bearing with short, stout, semirecumbent seta.
Scutellum broadly triangular, sparsely and coarsely punctate in basal half, with short, stout setae; apical area impunctate and bare.
Ventral surface of thorax sparsely covered with mixture of moderately long erect setae and recumbent scale-like setae. Abdominal ventrites 3-7 covered with irregular punctures bearing recumbent scale-like setae and few isolated moderately long erect setae. Pygidium large, convex, irregularly punctate with short semirecumbent setae. Lateral and apical margins of pygidium distinctly bordered.
Differential diagnosis. Entyposis frici sp. nov. belongs to a group of species with a shallow anteromedial depression. In the key of the genus Entyposis (Sehnal 2017), E. frici sp. nov. keys to the couplet with E. cordipenis. The male of E. frici sp. nov. differs from those of E. cordipenis in the shape of the pronotum-the anteromedial depression is only very faintly visible in the lateral view in E. frici sp. nov. (Fig. 25), whereas it is more pronounced in E. cordipenis (Fig. 27). The male genitalia of the two species are different, in E. cordipenis the apical part of the paramere (in dorsal view) is broad (Fig. 34), whereas in E. frici sp. nov. it is narrow (Fig. 33).
Three additional Entyposis species are known from Kenya and northern Tanzania, fairly close to the Horn of Africa: E. impressa, E. mendax, and E. squamulata. Entyposis impressa and E. mendax share a shallow anteromedial depression with E. frici sp. nov. Entyposis impressa is easily distinguished from E. frici sp. nov. by the shape of the male genitalia in both dorsal and lateral views (compare Figs 33 and 35). The differences in the shape of the male genitalia between E. frici sp. nov. and E. mendax are less pronounced (Figs 33 and  36), but both species differ markedly in the shape of the terminal maxillary palpomere, which is elongate in E. frici sp. nov. (Fig. 37), but shorter and apically expanded in E. mendax (Fig. 40).
No specimen of E. squamulata is available to us. This species was described rather recently based on two males only. According to the primary description (Lacroix and Montreuil 2012), males of E. squamulata are clearly distinguished from E. frici sp. nov. by a distinct anteromedial depression and by the shape of the tubercle at the middle of the anterior margin of the pronotum, which is bilobed in E. squamulata but simple in E. frici sp. nov.
Collecting events. Both specimens were attracted by UV light trap and sat on the wall of the Hamdi Hotel (Zdeněk Faltýnek Fric pers. comm. 2022).  Etymology. The name of the species is dedicated to Zdeněk Faltýnek Fric, a specialist in the phylogeny and ecology of butterflies, the collector of the type series.
Distribution. The species is known only from the type locality, Laascaanood, Somaliland (Fig. 40).
Remark. Members of Entyposis seem to be rarely collected. Most species are known from a very few specimens, even only from the type series. We have  examined about 500 specimens of Schizonychini collected by Czech entomologists in Somaliland during the last four years. Among this rich material, only three specimens of Entyposis were found. In addition to E. frici sp. nov. we discovered a single female of probably undescribed Entyposis from Beerato (Figs 41-44). We have postponed its description until more specimens, including males, are available. Narrow tip of male paramera (lateral view) very short (Fig. 35)  Terminal maxillary palpomere elongate (Fig. 37)